


Crawling Back To You

by Gay_Jesus_Probably



Category: Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: Clu deserves a disk to the face honestly, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, I took some liberties with Rinzlers speech patterns just go with it, I'm Gay Jesus Probably there too fyi, It's done and dont worry everything is so much worse, Not actually my first fic i just really hate AO3's posting format, Ram lives au, Ram says The Fuck Word a lot, Ram's a badass and all but he's no Rinzler, Sorry but not really, along with all my other fics, canon brainwashing, honestly tho hes earned it, just ignoring Uprising here because it's inconvenient to the story, somebody save rinzler from me, sorry Beck you can show up in a different story how about that, tfw your best friend gets brainwashed into a murderbot, the rape is non-graphic fyi, tron is there in spirit and his spirit is doing a lot of screaming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-13 21:13:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11193546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gay_Jesus_Probably/pseuds/Gay_Jesus_Probably
Summary: There were a few thoughts Ram expected to have in his runtime. "I miss Sark" was not one of them. In which Ram's opinion of Rinzler is an increasingly complicated emotional mess, and Rinzler just wants to know why that program is so familiar to him.First chapter from Ram's perspective, second chapter from Rinzler's.





	1. Ram

**Author's Note:**

> Measurements of time are from kesomon's Ram Expanded series. Which I would recommend like, everyone read right now because it's so good oh my god. And arguably happier than this story, so that's a plus.

Contrary to popular belief, Ram wasn't actually the first member of the resistance to know about Rinzler.

That dubious honor actually went to a contact in Tron City, who had giver a half-hysterical report about Clu having a shiny new enforcer, and said report had been passed down the line of informants, eventually reaching all the way to Ram. The rest of the cycle had been spent confirming the increasingly common rumours, before verifying the information and passing it on to Flynn.

He never actually saw the enforcer in person during that time. Descriptions were good enough, and it was hard to miss a disturbingly silent program with two disks. Besides, they hadn't gotten any reports from survivors of his attacks. Just the occasional terrified witness of Rinzler tearing apart rebels like they were nothing.

No survivors, and no mercy.

Ram wasn't a fan of Rinzler.

 

~

 

Rumours had been going around for a long time about Tron's derezzing. The only one who actually knew exactly what had gone down that microcycle had been Clu, and he wasn't inclined to talk about it beyond spreading the news of Tron's death. The next best source was Flynn, but the only real knowledge he had of Tron's derezzment was 'Clu was winning the fight and then there was a scream', and that wasn't overly specific. You could do a lot to make a program scream without immediately derezzing them, and Flynn had ran too fast to hear anything else. Honestly, the fact that Clu hadn't gone after Flynn was enough proof for Ram that Tron had lived beyond that single scream, at least for a little while.

So when Ram heard that Rinzler had been the one to derezz Tron, it sounded believable to him.

The rumour couldn't be proven, and knowing exactly how the security program died wasn't exactly helpful to anything, so Ram didn't take the information to Flynn. Besides, the User always got the most miserable expression of self-loathing whenever Tron was brought up, and Ram sure as shit wasn't going to poke at old wounds.

Whereas Yori had responded to Tron's death with a sort of cold fury, dedicating her significant abilities to the resistance. Mostly with the end goal of putting a disc through Clu's smug face.

Ram could respect that.

So after he was fairly certain about Rinzler's role in Tron's death, he didn't tell Flynn. But he did tell Yori.

In hindsight, that was a bad idea.

 

~

 

"Yori? You said you needed to talk to me?" Ram called, entering her hideout around the start of the cycle, and seeing her standing at the lone window.

"I'm going after Rinzler."

"You're fucking crazy." He blurted out. It wasn't even on purpose. It was just a reflex response to insanity.

"Thanks Ram, it's so nice knowing someone has faith in me." Yori deadpanned, raising an eyebrow in amusement as she turned to face him.

"No, but like – why? There's so many better ways to derezz yourself. Ways that don't give that creepy masked fucker the satisfaction."

"I can kill him, I know I can. I have to. He- he derezzed Tron, Ram. I'm tired of just… sitting here and doing nothing! I need to get out there, to actually help! Killing Rinzler will help, he's been obliterating our people left and right, someone has to do something! You can't stop me on this Ram, don't even try."

Ram stared at her in surprise, before sighing quietly.

"I miss him too. Good luck. I'll be waiting for your signal, if you live."

She pulled Ram into a hug before she left, both doing their best to pretend that it didn't feel like they would never see each other again.

 

~

 

Rinzler wasn't heard from again until they were halfway into the next cycle.

Yori never sent the signal.

When Rinzler reappeared and Yori didn't, Ram knew that she never would.

 

~

 

After Yori was derezzed, Ram decided to start staking out Rinzler himself.

Not that he was planning on confronting the program. Taking on one batshit insane evil right hand had been more than enough for him, back in the day with Sark. Even if Tron had been the one to take down the bastard, Ram had certainly helped, and it had been completely worth it.

No, Ram was sticking to surveillance. From a distance. A long distance.

And even if the enforcer did have some uncanny ability to notice when he was being watched, he spent a fair amount of time competing in the Arena for Clu. With that many eyes on him, Rinzler was bound to miss the lone program spying on him.

Programs didn't have hearts, but as Ram watched Rinzler fight, he could have sworn he felt his sinking.

Most programs couldn't identify another program by just fighting style. But Ram had known Tron incredibly well, Had seen his fighting style change and expand over the thousands of cycles, and had been witness to a rare handful of moments where he'd been enraged enough to lose control and abandon any sense of mercy.

Which is how Ram knew that Rinzler fought like Tron.

Oh, sure, he was more acrobatic, and certainly more brutal, and the dual disks added an extra element, but enough of their fighting styles lined up too well, forming a picture Ram didn't entirely want to look at.

And they had heard rumours of Clu rectifying programs. It would have taken more work for a well-made program from such a different User, but well… Clu would have had lot of spare time to work on repurposing Tron.

The small pattern of circuits forming a T on his chest had confirmed it, the familiar mark burning a corrupted orange instead of blue.

Ram had left in the middle of Rinzler's fight. He didn't want to see what his old friend had been warped into.

 

~

 

But despite himself, Ram just kept coming back.

Every time Rinzler derezzed a program, he barely even seemed to register the death, only calmly turning to look up at Clu.

Ram wondered what expression he had under the helmet.

As time went on, his stalking of the program increased, never moving to interact, but never being able to bring himself to back away. Like watching a light train crash. He knew he was seeing a tragic disaster. But he couldn't tear his eyes away, even as the body count piled up.

When he figured out how to break into Clu's throneship, he tried to convince himself that he was doing it for information. And sure, he was, but mostly?

He was doing it to look for Rinzler. To satisfy his morbid fascination. To try and see if anything was even left of his dearest friend underneath the ever-present mask.

 

~

 

Ram was very good at being silent when he wanted to.

As he moved through the ventilation system of Clu's throneship, he followed the blueprints he had downloaded into his memory earlier. Clu was on the ship, but hadn't been in the throne room. The next likely place was his quarters, and while Ram was unlikely to hear anything in there, it was certainly worth a try.

As he grew closer to Clu's private quarters, a rumbling reached his ears, causing him to freeze in alarm.

Rinzler.

The knowledge of his real identity and subsequent stalking had really only served to reinforce the point in Ram's mind that Rinzler was the baddest motherfucker on the Grid. Former friend or not, he had little interest to actually try and fight him.

If Tron's repurposing had been through enough to make him kill Yori, Ram wouldn't stand a chance.

"…Rinzler, come here."

Clu's voice was faint, and Ram made a point of carefully approaching the vent grate leading into the room, keeping out of sight, but getting close enough to hear clearly. If he heard Rinzler's orders before the enforcer could follow through, it would be invaluable to the resistance.

No words were exchanged, but there was a strange amount of movement, and the sound of something hitting the bed. Ram was officially thoroughly confused.

There was a slightly pained gasp, in a voice that sounded like a distorted version of Tron's.

Ram couldn't help it.

He looked out the vent.

At the sight of what was happening in the room, he was barely able to hold in his own sound, this one of shock and horror.

Rinzler's helmet had been removed, and it hurt to see Tron's face so badly damaged, scarring covering almost half of it, but avoiding his eyes, both of which glowed a deep orange. Heavy scarring was prominent on his neck, the mutilation looking purposeful, and probably responsible for the distorted state of Rinzler's voice, and his usual silence. More scars wound around his torso and arms, clearly marks from torture.

But worst of all was the reason why Ram could see all of Tron's new scars. Because Rinzler was naked. Because Rinzler was being held down on the bed by Clu, possessive hands grabbing at his scarred wrists, and holding them above his head. Because Clu's crotch was pressing against Rinzlers, and as Ram watched in horror, began moving in an unmistakable rhythm, the violent thrusts making it clear he cared very little about the comfort or enjoyment of the other program.

Ram had to leave. Ram wanted to leave. Ram needed to leave, needed to get out, to not see the debauchery being forced on his friend, broken and corrupted as he was. But Ram was frozen in place, unable to abandon Rinzler – to abandon Tron – in that nightmare with Clu.

Because despite the unspeakable violation being forced on him, Rinzler's sickly orange eyes were locked onto Clu's face, staring at the admin in silent devotion and adoration, right up until they were forced to close with pain from the assault.

And shaking with rage, Ram stayed.

Someone had to be horrified for Tron's sake. If he couldn't do it, then Ram would.

So he stayed. Watched in numb horror and grief as Tron's body was used as a plaything for a tyrant. Watched as Rinzler's hands were released, and he immediately wrapped them in an embrace around Clu's shoulders. Watched as the administrator finished and removed himself from Tron. Watched as Rinzler willingly sunk to his knees to clean him off, the movement too immediate to be anything but well-practiced. Watched as afterwards, Rinzler was left on the bed, gaze still fixed on Clu as he went over to the window to look down on the city, neither bothering to rezz their suits back on.

Listened as Clu discussed troop movements, Rinzler offering the occasional quiet, distorted sounding suggestion, the simple act of speaking seeming difficult for him.

And when they were done speaking, Clu returned to the bed, and without being told, Tron willingly spread his legs for the man who had destroyed everything he ever was.

Ram left.

 

~

 

He made it all the way to the outlands before he was forced to stop, his shaking making it impossible to drive his lightcycle, and bringing him to a stop behind a pile of rocks, where he finally fell to his knees and retched, and once the nausea abated, sobbed.

It took him a long time to get moving again. The images had not faded from his memory banks.

He suspected they weren't going to.

 

~

 

Ram passed the information on to the resistance about the troop movements.

He didn't tell them how he had gotten it.

 

~

 

Eight microcycles later, he was attacked by Rinzler.

Somehow, Ram wasn't surprised.

 

~

 

Well, at the time it had been a surprise.

He had been riding through the outlands on his lightcycle, when suddenly, something tackled him off of it, his lightcycle going forwards out of control and derezzing without him against a rock. Ram didn't notice, as he was too busy struggling with the other program, the velocity from his lightcycle sending them both tumbling a fair distance before they stopped, the other one ending up on top and pinning Ram down, an orange disk held to his throat.

With a familiar rumble. And a T shaped circuit pattern.

Fuck.

"You're Rinzler, right? Nice to meet you, can you let me up?" Ram said, as if he wasn't completely terrified. Hey, worth a try. Rinzler cocked his head slightly.

"Y-y-you sssAAw." Rinzler forced out, glitched voice jumping between pitches.

"Saw what?" Ram asked, playing dumb, although they both knew exactly what was being discussed.

"M-m-mE. Cl-C-Clu. Yyou ha-ad the informa-mation. Thhaaat he-e sAid. A-aftER i-i-i-i-iinterface."

And Rinzler was just calling him out. Okay then.

Not good.

"If Clu already knows I saw, why don't you just follow your orders and derezz me?"

Rinzler paused at that, the unnerving rumbling filling the silence.

"N-not o-ordERS. Ju-ust me."

Ram stared.

"Wait. So. Clu knows the information got out. He doesn't know that I did it, but you know. And you… didn't tell him. But just hunted me down on your own to interrogate me. Not over the classified information I got… but over what I saw in the process."

Rinzler gave a sharp nod.

"I didn't tell anyone about it. What you were doing. Just because you're the enemy doesn't mean it's my business who you choose to interface with."

Behind the helmet, Ram was fairly certain Tron's eerie orange eyes were doing their best to burn a hole in his head. He was welcome to try.

"…So, if I'm not getting derezzed… can I go now?"

Rinzler hesitated, still staring intently at Ram.

"I…. kn-know yoU…"

"Ram. My name is Ram."

Rinzler gave a nod at that, clearly committing the name to memory.

And then he stood up, getting off Ram. He didn't offer a hand up. He didn't comment on the voxel remains of Ram's lightcycle. Just pulled out a baton, and took off, his orange glow rapidly fading away.

Shaking, Ram got to his feet again.

…It was going to be a long walk back.

 

~

 

After that, Ram noticed a reversal in the pattern his life had been taking.

Specifically, Rinzler was now following him.

The enforcer had a considerably busier schedule than Ram, so his stalking wasn't quite as effective, but Rinzler seemed to have decided his limited free time was best spent following him around. He never made a move to interact again, but whenever Ram made it clear that he'd spotted him, Rinzler didn't seem to feel threatened enough to leave.

Which was probably justified, because Ram's own bout of surveillance had taught him that no, he could not take Rinzler in a fight. Oh, he'd go down swinging, but Tron was programmed to be the best warrior around. As Rinzler, he was devastating. Ram would not fuck with that.

After two micro-hex's of being followed, Ram decided to talk to the other program anyways.

 

~

 

Rinzler sees him coming, obviously.

Ram is just about to leave the city after picking up some information, when he spots the usual orange glow on top of a building, a silent, helmeted watcher.

Ram looks up at Rinzler and waves.

Rinzler does not respond

So Ram follows through with what he's been talking himself into doing, and starts to climb up said building. Rinzler clearly sees him approaching, but Ram is taking care to climb slowly, which is enough to get the point across that he's not interested in a fight.

When he reaches the top, Rinzler just stares.

"Hello. Noticed you following me lately. Is this Clu, or just you?"

"…J-juUst me. Ra-am."

"Alright then. Can I ask why? I mean, not that the company isn't nice, but it was a little terrifying at first."

"D-don't know. F-f-fe-eelt li-iike I shOUld?"

"Hey, that's okay. Just for the record, when I wave, that means that I don't mind if you come over to talk with me. Just sayin'. You seem like a busy program, and with those vocal glitches I'm guessing you don't have a lot of people to talk to, and everyone needs some conversation now and then."

Rinzler makes a quiet noise of acknowledgement, but doesn't reply beyond that. Ram talks about nothing at him for a while, before Rinzler snaps his head around to stare intently at Clu's throneship, forces out something about being called, and leaves abruptly.

Ram gains the sneaking suspicion that Rinzler is really under socialized.

And, like a fucking idiot, decides to do something about it.

 

~

 

Rinzler keeps following him. And whenever Ram's alone, he joins Rinzler to talk. Sometimes Rinzler refuses to speak at all, sometimes he sticks to fractured sentences, and sometimes, very rarely, Rinzler will completely hold up his end of the conversation.

As they talk, Ram finds that Rinzler might not be Tron, but he is someone Ram can get along with. They're even vaguely approaching the point of friends. It probably helps that he never needs to see Tron's face again, as Rinzler keeps his helmet on at all times, even though Ram feels bad about being grateful for that.

Their tenuous friendship lasts for nearly three full cycles.

And then things fall apart.

 

~

 

Ram should have known that something was wrong when Rinzler was the one to approach first. He never did that, but, like an idiot, Ram assumed Rinzler was just feeling more social. Or something.

He also probably should have caught the warning sign of Rinzler being more agitated than usual.

But all of that was ignored, when Rinzler cut off Ram's greeting to inform him that he had remembered something, and needed to tell him about it. That he didn't have time now, but he would later, and to meet him at this place at this time, before running off again.

And Ram believed him.

In hindsight, the entire thing was screaming 'trap'. But Ram's processors were so wrapped up in the sudden hope that maybe, maybe some hint of Tron was back, that he couldn't see the danger.

 

~

 

Rinzler had asked to meet him in a building under construction, near the center of the city. It had taken some work to get there unnoticed, but Ram had made it on time, and reached the top floor to find Rinzler waiting, his usual rumble sounding.

"Rinzler? What's going on?"

"So you're the one that's been messing with my program. I should have known. You always did have faulty logic processors."

Ram froze at the voice from behind him, circuits going cold with fear.

"Clu."

Around Ram, an absolutely ridiculous amount of Black Guard began to reveal themselves, surrounding him. Clu slowly walked forwards, grinning lazily, clearly enjoying the trap he had set.

And Rinzler continued to rumble, unmoving.

"So, I was doing a standard check of his code a few microcycles ago, and I found the strangest thing. See, he's not supposed to have friends, or acquaintances, or anyone. Especially not a rebel like you. So, after a full overhaul to remove all the damage you did, I had Rinzler bring you into this little trap here. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to trust the enemy?"

Ram glared, practically shaking in anger.

"I know what you did to him. You're a monster, and you can't hold Tron down forever!"

"Really? I find I prefer him when he's... ah, down." Clu said, grin turning into more of a leer. It took a picocycle for the administrator's insinuation to register with Ram, but as soon as it did, Ram's disk was in his hand and activated, and he was flinging himself at Clu with a scream of rage.

And then the Black Guard attacked.

This wasn't Ram's first system-ruling dictator. The guards were a problem, sure, but not one that could hold him down. Ram practically danced around them, derezzing guards left and right, and slowly yet surely making his way towards Clu, mostly with the express purpose of putting a disk through his stupid grin.

Clu didn't even react when Ram reached him, wasn't even alarmed about him stabbing forwards with his disk-

Probably because Ram was tackled before he could finish the attack.

In a mockery of their first real meeting, Ram and Rinzler went tumbling sideways, before once again stopping with Rinzler on top. Disk activated, and held to Ram's throat.

But not cutting.

"Excellent, Rinzler. Just hold him there for me."

Ram struggled as Clu approached, yelled in protest as the admin reached under his back, swore violently as he pressed a hand against his disk-

And then gave a near-silent whimper as he was forcefully sent into a shut down. The last thing he saw was Rinzler's helmet, staring down at him.

 

~

 

Ram came to inside of a cell.

He really wished he could say it was the first time he had experienced that.

As his memory's loaded up, he scowled at the wall.

"Fuck."

There really wasn't anything else to say. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Clu had figured out what Rinzler had been up to. Clu had put a stop to it. And was probably going to put a stop to Ram as well.

He gave his cell an examination, and was unsurprised to find it top security. Not even he could get through that.

Fuck.

 

~

 

He was left in the cell for thee full microcycles, with nothing changing except his rising boredom and falling energy levels. This was probably done on purpose, as by the time they came for him, he could barely walk from the depletion, and had to be dragged along by the guards.

When they threw him in a new cell, he almost didn't get up. A faint glow was enough to get his attention, and he looked up to see a single glass of energy waiting for him, small and impure. A pittance, really. Barely enough to run for a nano-hex.

Ram drank it anyways. He was desperate.

Really, he got better rations from the MCP.

Once the energy filtered through his system, he was able to see enough to detail to notice what kind of cell he was in.

Oh.

Ohh no.

They were putting him in the games.

Right on time, the cell began to rise, the deafening cheers of the arena reaching his audio processors.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." He hissed, undocking his disk as his cell was moved to meet his opponents.

 

~

 

He beat every match he was in.

Obviously.

Again, not his first tyrannical ruler.

Still, it probably hadn't been best move to win every single match. Back with the MCP, winning every match meant getting to live to go back to your cell and do it again next microcycle. In this arena…

Winning meant facing Rinzler.

 

~

 

As Ram was dropped into the arena of his corrupted best friend, Rinzler entered, heralded by the sound of his endless broken rumbling.

It wasn't much of a fight.

For what it was worth, he lasted five entire nanocycles, which was more than most of Rinzler's opponents could say. But Ram was tired and low on power, and Tron had always been the better fighter anyways.

One stumble was all it took.

He had meant to slip between the arcs of Rinzler's disks, the calculations of their angles having ran the second they were thrown, but the low energy levels made him lag slightly, one leg not quite landing right, and causing him to miss his calculated mark-

One of Rinzler's disks ripped through his chest.

There was a burst of pain and fear, the feeling of falling apart, his code breaking down under the damage-

and

nothing

 

~

 

The crowd cheered wildly as the final program was derezzed.

For his part, Rinzler caught both of his disks, returned them to their dock, and stared at the pile of voxels that used to be a program. For a long moment, all he did was look, a slight hitch in his rumbling that few would have been able to notice.

And then it evened out, and he turned away, calmly exiting the arena. Returning back to Clu.

Behind him, the remains of Ram were left to dissolve back into the system.


	2. Rinzler

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings the same as last chapter, but worse because this is from the victims perspective. Also, Tron cameo! And Clu's a fucking creep but what else is new.

Rinzler knew of the existence of a resistance. A small band of misled, corrupted programs, siding with the User over Clu. He didn't understand why they chose that. Clu was the path to perfection. Why would they choose to be imperfect?

Rather than choose to be slaves-

ERROR

It didn't matter. They opposed the Luminary. Therefore Rinzler's ongoing task was to destroy them.

Cold. Simple. Brutal.

He was good at that.

Clu wanted them to know about Rinzler. Wanted them to be afraid of him.

His existence was purposefully revealed to a traitor in the city, setting it up so the traitor would see Rinzler in combat and go running to the resistance and the false creator about it.

He didn't mind. Rinzler liked it when they were afraid of him.

 

~

 

Once Rinzler's existence, rank, and ability became public knowledge, rumours started circulating about him. He kept an eye on them, just in case, and found he had mixed feelings on them.

Some people thought that he was a secret copy of Clu. Flattering, but no.

Some people thought that he was actually a User. Insulting, and no.

Some people thought that he had been the one to derezz Tron.

That rumour was Clu's favourite, considering the way he had burst out laughing when he first heard it. And sure, spending more than a picocycle of thought on the name Tron caused a stack of error messages to begin blaring in his mind, but that rumour was his favourite. It made Clu happy. When Clu was in a good mood, Clu didn't want to hurt Rinzler just for the fun of it.

Rinzler liked Clu in a good mood.

 

~

 

There is a woman attacking him.

She doesn't explain her motives, and Rinzler doesn't need her to. He's been having a long micro-hex, and extended tracking missions have kept him from the arena. It's been too long since he's had a good fight.

Derezzing her will help.

She's good, but she's not Rinzler. Like all the others, her movements are predictable, even if there's something oddly familiar about her. She's defeated easily, her disk sent flying off somewhere else, and she is knocked to the ground, breathing heavily.

Rinzler raises a disk to derezz her, and-

And for the first time she manages to surprise him, screaming in fury and launching herself at Rinzler, sending both of them down onto the ground as she smashes her fist against Rinzlers helmet, uncaring of the damage she is causing her own hands.

He is struggling to get her off from the awkward position, when his helmet smashes, glass fracturing away, revealing his eye, and then his entire face as the broken helmet derezzes automatically.

She freezes.

"Tron? What-"

The program doesn't get the chance to finish the sentence, before Rinzler's disc smashes into her face, derezzing her instantly.

Yori.

Oh Users no not Yori

Something is wrong. Rinzlers ears are ringing.

nonononoNONONOYORINOTYORI

Something is wrong.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YORI NO USERS NO YORI

He needs… he needs…

YORI

He needs Clu.

Staggering, Rinzler leaves.

 

~

 

His protocols state that he is never to be seen without a helmet by anyone except Clu. He sticks to unused routes back to the Throneship, ensuring he isn't seen. His helmet hasn't rezzed back yet, and he doesn't have the stability to do it manually. His mind is a screaming mess, and all he can think of is Clu, get back to Clu. Even his fragmented errors are calling for him to return, albeit with rage instead of desperate need.

He makes it back to his Luminary's quarters unseen, and sends a message to inform Clu of that. Unsurprisingly, Clu is there quickly, clearly concerned over the amount of distress that had been embedded in it.

HE DOESN'T CARE HE'S WORRIED HE'LL LOSE HIS SLAVE

"Where's your helmet?" Is the first thing he asks.

"a-a-attTTTacked. GooOOONE." Rinzler drags out, his vocal glitching worse than usual. Clu frowns.

"Disk."

Rinzler grabs his disks, ready to present it, when-

HISFAULTTRAITORLIARMONSTERTORTURERRAPISTDIDTHISTOME

KILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIM

And the glitch overwhelms him.

The last thing Rinzler knows is him - not him - lunging at Clu, disks ignited and aimed to kill.

 

~

 

Tron wakes up in a cell, bound and restrained. His last memory is trying his best to murder the Users damned monster that had caused Yori's death, and then Clu getting his hand on Tron's empty disk port, forcing a hard shutdown.

Fuck.

He screams in frustration, broken vocal coding grinding painfully as he does so, and gives a token struggle against the restraints. Nothing changes, as always.

It's not the first time Tron's fought his way to the surface, and so far it's always ended with him bound in a cell, and Clu tearing him and his code apart until Rinzler takes over again, and then burying the memories for good measure.

Clu enters the cell, and Tron growls in fury, well aware that he probably seems half feral. Which is, again, Clu's fault, considering he was the one that mutilated Tron's throat. With the effort that talking is now, he reserves it for when it's needed.

Words are not needed to express his loathing for Clu.

"Still moody, Tron? I had a look at your memories while you were out. It's a shame about Yori."

Tron snarls, and lunges forwards. If the restraints hadn't been there, he would have torn Clu's head right off. As it is, his movement is quickly aborted, drawing a raised eyebrow from the admin, as he begins walking in a slow circle around Tron. He can't turn his head to watch.

"Oh, don't be like that. Personally, I would call you better off. After all, she didn't seem too fond of you anymore. But don't worry. I'm not going anywhere."

At the ending of the sentence, Clu wraps his arms around Tron from behind, in a mockery of affection. Tron decides words are needed.

"D-d-dooOOn't… wa-a-a-ant… yooou." He spits out, doing his best to twist away from Clu's embrace.

"That's not what you said a few microcycles ago." Clu says, voice low and mocking in Tron's ear.

Tron flushes at the reminder. While Tron had been raped during his initial imprisonment and recoding, it had been a nasty surprise to discover that he was still somewhat aware while Rinzler was in control – and painfully aware of Clu taking gleeful advantage of his enforcer's hardwired obedience.

"N-NooOt me-e-e."

It's hard to get tone across with his vocal glitching, but Tron's an expert at making sure somebody knows exactly how much he hates them. It's a gift.

Clu backs off slightly, and runs a hand along Tron's disks, the touch unwanted and possessive.

"We can fix that."

 

~

 

Unlike the previous times Tron's been recoded, he now has the grief and fury over Yori to help him fight it.

He holds out longer, but it isn't enough.

~

Rinzler does not remember his last mission.

Clu tells him it had to be deleted from his memory. Clu tells him he had a severe glitch, and spent the last cycle being repaired by him.

Rinzler is fixed now.

Rinzler is grateful.

Rinzler returns to normal duties.

He feels better.

 

~

 

His thought process tends to be mechanical after he's repaired, but it reboots back to its usual capacity after a while. Which is good, because with his vocal subroutines damaged the way they are, it's honestly not worth it to speak unless he absolutely has to. So contrary to popular belief, there's actually plenty of things happening in his head at a given moment. None of it ever makes it into words, that's all.

Which is for the best, because some of his thoughts are ones he shouldn't necessarily have.

Primary example being his current circumstances.

Because Clu is touching Rinzler, derezzing his helmet and suit, taking him to his bed, and Rinzler knows that interfacing with his Luminary should be a treasured, honoured moment.

All he can really think about is the fact that he strained his leg something awful after being surprised by a rain-wet landing surface earlier that microcycle, and he's had insufficient rest periods all micro-hex, and all he wants to do is put a heating pad on his leg and go have a good, long shut down. Preferably for the next ten cycles. Luminary or not, Rinzler does not want to be interfacing, or even interacting with anybody right now.

But Clu wants to interface with Rinzler right now and 'no' is not a word Clu tolerates Rinzler using. So he lets himself be pushed onto the bed, lets himself be held down, lets Clu push roughly inside of him, lets the Luminary use his Enforcer like a poorly made 'entertainment' program. Wraps his arms around Clu once his arms are free. Cleans him off when he finishes.

And, because any form of no is unacceptable, Rinzler makes sure that his expression and his eyes read nothing but devotion and adoration the entire time. His mask isn't hiding his expression now. Covert eye-rolls will be detected and met with extreme violence right now.

Afterwards, Clu gets around to what Rinzler was initially called to his chambers to discuss, his inputs on the movement of the armies. It's routine. Rinzler has better things to do, and the earlier events have made his pre-shut down routine longer, as cleaning himself will be necessary. Unless he wants to sleep with Clu's release still inside of him, which has happened a few times, and is disgusting.

When they finish discussing strategy, Clu returns to the bed for another round, thankfully gentler this time. Afterwards, Rinzler is allowed to go.

Finally. There's a heating pad and a glass of energy in his room, and they're just what he needs right now.

 

~

 

Clu has informants in the rebels, of course. They're far too trusting for their own good, and it isn't exactly hard to slip a recitified program in their ranks, even if the program in question needs more elegant edits than a normal drone. It makes perfect tactical sense, even if some deep, buried part of Rinzler recoils in revulsion at the idea. Probably another glitch.

But regardless of Rinzler's personal feelings on the matter, this means that when the rebels get a hold of plans for the armies movements for the next hex, Clu is immediately informed.

He's not happy.

Neither is Rinzler.

It's for different reasons.

Clu is pissed. Furious, even. He yells at Jarvis, tears half of the Generals a new one, and when all of that is over, turns his attention on Rinzler.

The Luminary spends half a microcycle working out his frustrations on Rinzler. It's miserable, as always, but Rinzler has other things on his processor. Sure, the pain is distracting, but half a microcycle is a long time to spend in Clu's bed, and Rinzler is well practiced at letting his thoughts wander away from it all, responding automatically to the occasional orders Clu deigns to give.

Clu doesn't care how the rebels got the information, just that they got it. But Rinzler knows exactly when Clu and him worked out the information. Knows that whoever had overheard it would have also heard Rinzler and Clu interfacing.

Rinzler doesn't know why, but the thought of someone knowing that – seeing that – fills him with horror and revulsion. He doesn't have much, but he has his pride. …Occasionally. He occasionally has his pride.

Clu's degradations are one thing, but witnesses of them…

The knowledge of it is almost as torturous as what Clu is doing to him.

Finally, finally, Clu pulls out of him for the last time, and rezzes his suit back on. He has the generosity to walk away to the window, and stare pensively down at the city, as he likes to do, allowing Rinzler to lay on the bed and attempt to pull himself back together. He's given a few microcycles, before Clu remembers his enforcers is still on the bed, exhausted, injured, and thoroughly debauched.

"Get back to work." Clu snaps, not bothering to turn around.

Rinzler rezzes his suit and helmet back on, and leaves as quickly as he can without running away. It's at a bit of a limp though.

He visits Clu's personal medic, a stoic man who never questions Rinzler's many mysteriously acquired injuries. After he's repaired, he replenishes his energy, and gets to work.

Fortunately, Clu never specified what exactly he should be working on, just that whatever tasks he has on stand by in his list, he should go and do. That usually just means that Clu doesn't want to see him for a while.

And Rinzler has work to do.

It's going to be a long process, tracking the infiltrator. Probably enough to keep Rinzler busy and out of Clu's sight for the micro-hex.

He gets to work.

 

~

 

When he finally tracks down the infiltrator's signal, they're riding through the outlands on their lightcycle. Rinzler does the natural thing, and tackles them straight off of it.

As they roll, he hears the infiltrators lightcycle derezz somewhere, but he doesn't really care about that, busy ensuring that he ends the roll on top of the smaller program, pinning him down with a disk at his throat.

The program glares for a moment, before he realizes exactly who is attacking him. He freezes, eyes going wide, and seems to attempt to shrink back into the ground. It's a satisfying reaction.

"You're Rinzler, right? Nice to meet you, can you let me up?" The program says, voice only shaking slightly. It's an admirable effort to hide his obvious fear. Shame it doesn't work.

Rinzler tilts his head.

"Y-y-you sssAAw." He forces out, for once pleased about his vocal glitch, as the program is clearly intimidated.

"Saw what?" He tries, voice squeaking slightly. Rinzler isn't in the mood for playing around.

"M-m-mE. Cl-C-Clu. Yyou ha-ad the informa-mation. Thhaaat he-e sAid. A-aftER i-i-i-i-iinterface."

The glitching is worse from Rinzler's stress, but that's alright. The program goes pale, and his eyes dart around the area, as if there's any possible way he could escape.

There's not.

Even if something about him is... weirdly familiar.

Not the point. Rinzler is going to interrogate the program. He's going to find out who else knows what he saw. And then he'll derezz him. No matter much the thought repels him.

"If Clu already knows that I saw, why don't you just follow your orders and derezz me?" The program snaps, mustering a glare.

Rinzler locks up for a moment, some deep, instinctive level of his code screaming in horror at the thought of killing the program.

He re-calculates his plan.

"N-not o-ordERS. Ju-ust me."

The program stares, blinking slightly in surprise.

"Wait. So. Clu knows the information got out. He doesn't know that I did it, but you know. And you… didn't tell him. But just hunted me down on your own to interrogate me. Not over the classified information I got… but over what I saw in the process." He says, eyeing Rinzler carefully.

Rinzler gives a single nod.

"I didn't tell anyone about it. What you were doing. Just because you're the enemy doesn't mean it's my business who you choose to interface with." The program continues, voice slightly soft. There's a trace of pity in it. …No. Compassion.

Rinzler's skin crawls from it. Kindness feels wrong. Foreign. Unfamiliar.

"…So, if I'm not getting derezzed… can I go now?"

He hesitates, unwilling to let the smaller man leave for some reason.

"I…. kn-know yoU…" Rinzler says, trailing off in some hope that the other program will elaborate.

"Ram. My name is Ram."

Ram. The name sounds right. Familiar. Safe. Friendly.

Rinzler nods again, and gets up. Clu doesn't know that this program leaked the information. Rinzler doesn't need to derezz him. He was here for personal reasons the whole time anyways. He can afford a rare show of mercy.

He gets off of Ram, and puts his disk back with its twin. He takes one last look at Ram, before pulling out his lightcycle and leaving. Ram fades out of sight behind him.

Rinzler pauses before returning to the city, and re-sorts his memories, pushing the encounter to the back of his files. Clu won't be able to see Rinzler's memories of the encounter unless he does a full examination, and as long as Rinzler stays on top of the glitches, that isn't going to happen.

He just needs to keep it together. That's all.

 

~

 

He starts following Ram around.

He's not sure why. Something about the other program makes him want to stick around. Rinzler doesn't bother being stealthy, but keeps his distance. Ram notices him about half of the time, and is brave enough to openly acknowledge Rinzler when he does. Not brave enough to approach though, which is smart. No matter what Rinzler might want to the contrary.

And then Ram does approach.

Rinzler sees him coming, obviously. The program isn't even trying to be stealthy, with the way he waves, and openly broadcasts his climb up the tower. Out of sheer curiosity, Rinzler stays, letting him approach.

He's not sure what to say when Ram reaches the top, so he just watches silently.

"Hello. Noticed you following me lately. Is this Clu, or just you?" Ram says, voice oddly cheerful, given the subject matter.

"…J-juUst me. Ra-am."

As soon as he's done saying it, Rinzler is well aware that it's a fucking awkward sentence, but it's not worth it to correct himself. Ram seems to get the point, the point being that Rinzler remembers him and isn't actively hostile right now.

"Alright then. Can I ask why? I mean, not that the company isn't nice, but it was a little terrifying at first."

Rinzler's opinion of Ram goes up slightly. It's good that he knows enough to be frightened when Clu's enforcer starts following him around.

"D-don't know. F-f-fe-eelt li-iike I shOUld?"

Ram nods a bit, either in understanding or agreement. Rinzler can't tell which.

"Hey, that's okay. Just for the record, when I wave, that means that I don't mind if you come over to talk with me. Just sayin'. You seem like a busy program, and with those vocal glitches I'm guessing you don't have a lot of people to talk to, and everyone needs some conversation now and then."

Speaking in response to that doesn't seem worth it, so Rinzler just hums quietly in acknowledgement. Ram seems to take that as encouragement, as he starts to ramble away, for some reason about the moral implications of two programs in quarantine turning on each other. Rinzler has no idea where the subject came from, but Ram seems happy enough, and interacting with someone that isn't Clu or Jarvis is… nice. Almost like a break. So he sits back and lets Ram's chatter wash over him.

After a while, he receives a message from Clu, summoning him in to receive orders. Rinzler's head snaps around towards the throneship automatically, and Ram trails off into a concerned silence.

"MUU-uust go. Be-be-beiING ca-aaalled." He says in explanation, before leaving for the throneship. The last thing he wants to do is annoy Clu by taking too long.

 

~

 

Rinzler's… whatever it is he has with Ram lasts for longer than he expected. Rinzler holds off the glitches for three full cycles, longer than he ever has before.

And then it all comes crashing down.

Ironically, it's because of the lack of glitches from Rinzler.

Rinzler is called into Clu's quarters, with the reason why not provided. This is standard.

"You've been unusually functional lately. Disks." Is what Clu opens with, holding out an expectant hand.

And, ever obedient, Rinzler hands them over. Watches as Clu skims through his surface code. Accesses the deeper parts. Goes into his memory.

Watches as Clu discovers Ram, and replays every single one of their meetings.

By the time Clu is finished, Rinzler is shaking. Clu does not hand the disks back.

"You've been in contact with a rebel." He says, voice deadly calm. "You've been in contact with a rebel, and hiding it from me."

Rinzler doesn't reply, frozen in fear with what's about to happen.

Clu gives a disappointed sigh, and stands.

"I expected this behaviour from Tron, but you?"

Rinzler gives a full-body flinch at the name, glitches rising up and turning his vision to static.

Clu takes advantage of Rinzler's episode, and moves in, sending Rinzler into a hard shut down.

He blacks out to the sight of Clu staring down at him, face cold and uncaring.

 

~

 

Clu says that Rinzler's been glitching for the last three cycles.

Clu says a rebel influenced Rinzler's code.

Rinzler is fixed now.

Rinzler is grateful.

He feels better.

Clu says the rebel doesn't know Rinzler was fixed.

Clu gives him orders.

Rinzler follows them.

 

~

 

He goes to the rebel.

He gives the rebel the ambush location and leaves.

He reports back to Clu.

Clu is proud.

Clu says he did well.

Rinzler is grateful.

 

~

 

The rebel goes to the ambush.

Rinzler is ordered to stand back in the battle.

The rebel handles the guard.

The rebel moves to attack Clu.

Rinzler's protection programming kicks in.

He stops the rebel.

Clu is proud.

Clu says he did well.

Rinzler is grateful.

 

~

 

The rebel is placed in the games.

He makes it to Rinzler.

He lasts longer than most.

He still dies like all the others.

For a long moment after derezzing him, Rinzler stared at the pile of voxels, some distant part of him screaming at the sight, and his rumbling hitching in response to the faint distress.

And then Clu's summons tugs at his processor, and he turns to leave. Back to the throneship. Back to Clu.

Rinzler does not think of the rebel again.

Rinzler is fixed now.

Rinzler is grateful.

Clu is happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, Tron's love was able to (temporarily) save Ram and not Yori, because Yori was actively trying to kill Rinzler until the last second, and security program instincts overrode Tron until it was too late. Wheras Ram was non-hostile, and the confrontation happened on Rinzler's terms. He didn't feel threatened around Ram, so he was more willing to follow confusing feelings. Sorry Yori!  
> Also just because you all need to know, "the moral implications of two programs in quarantine turning on each other" is absolutely code for "if two programs were in quarantine and one of them killed the other one with a rock would that be fucked up or what". Ram is meme trash.  
> Anyways please leave comments and kudos bcause I am eternally sad inside and those help, and also go read my other Legacy story, Ghost in the Machine! It's much happier than this one, promise.

**Author's Note:**

> Swear to god I didn't mean to kill Ram and Yori, it just... happened. Second chapter coming whenever I get around to it.  
> I've actually got another Tron Legacy fanfic in the works right now, and it's considerably longer than this one. Another AU, not with Ram tho. First chapter of it should be up sometime this month, for anyone whose interested. It'll also be darker, by which I mean the examination of Clu and Rinzler's interactions will be very much graphic. And I mean honestly Rinzler was created via Clu mindraping Tron, there's no fucking way he wouldn't keep it up afterwards. Dude's crazy.  
> Anyways, pls leave comments I'm a cave beast desperate for affection and validation.


End file.
